Capital’s air quality healthy as EPA controls emissions from industrial area: Farzana Shah

ISLAMABAD, August 1: The air quality of the federal capital after rainy weather turned healthy on Monday as abnormal spell of monsoon rainfalls lashed out various parts of the country have helped reducing the pollution.
Director General Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) FarzanaAltaf Shah told a state run news agency that the agency controlled air emissions from the industrial area that resulted in improved air quality for citizens to breath safe air.
The air quality was recorded healthy as suspended particles were noted below permissible limits in the atmosphere alongwith the pollutants’ ratio due to consistent rainy weather and reduced vehicular traffic on roads.
The air quality data has been collected by Pak-EPA which monitors air pollutants ratio for 24 hours based on three intervals of eight hours of data collection from different locations.
The Pak-EPA data revealed that the air quality throughout the three intervals of data monitoring remained high as the pollutants were below the permissible limits of national environmental quality standards (NEQS).
The hazardous air pollutant particulate matter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5), which was a lethal atmospheric contaminant, remained 8.66 micro grammes per cubic meter on average which is higher than the NEQS of 35 mic-programmes per cubic meter and denotes the air quality unhealthy.
The PM2.5 is generated through combustion of an engine, industrial emissions, burning garbage or inflammable material and dust blown up by fast moving cars plying on non-cemented patches of the roads.
Moreover, the frequent forest fires in the federal capital also created high suspended particles, dust and particulate matter in the atmosphere, the EPA chief said. SABAH